The list itself: I have an absurdly long explanation for all of this, which I will feature in a separate post below, but almost nobody will want to wade through the whole thing. So, for those who want to cut to the chase this is not (by a long shot) how I predict the Saints will conduct their draft this year, but how I would draft if I were they. I used two “consensus big boards” to tell me which players were still available at which slots, and I made five (!!) trades (with, at various times, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, the New York Jets Denver, and the LA Chargers) , strictly according to this commonly used NFL Draft Trade Value Chart.
Again, all the details of the trades, and the thought processes for all my picks, are in the next post. But without further adieu, my choices (you can easily Google the basic info about each) are:
Round 1, choice 17 (after two trade-downs): Nick Emmanwori, Safety, South Carolina
Round 2, choice 40: Nick Scourton, Edge, Texas
Round 2-42: Carson Schwesinger, LB, UCLA
Round 3-85: Kyle McCord, QB, Syracuse
Round 3-86: Charles Grant, OT, William and Mary
Round 4-112: Damien Martinez, RB, U-Miami
Round 4-119: Vernon Broughton, DT, Texas
Round 4-131: Tai Felton, WR, Maryland
Round 5-153: Antwaun Powell-Ryland, Edge, Va. Tech
Round 6-184: Cody Simon, LB, Ohio State.
(Note: I also gave up the Saints’ fourth rounder in 2026 to make the trades happen.)
For those keeping score, after my trades I ended up losing a fourth rounder next year and my two seventh-rounders this year, and I moved down (backward) eight spots in the first round. In return, I got an additional second rounder (42), 4th rounder (119), and fifth rounder (153). My third round picks were 3-71 and 3-93, and now are 3-85 and 3-86 (basically a wash, maybe a tiny regression).
Again, much longer explanations are in articles below.
